FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE (9/97)
Contact: Lynn Stewart, Centenary News Service
318-869-5120 or 869-5709
SHREVEPORT, LA -- Centenary College will dedicate its newest garden, the Wayne Curtis Memorial Garden, at 1 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 4 on the local campus.
The garden honors Curtis, a Shreveport business and civic leader and former president of the Centenary Alumni Association, who died at age 48 in a 1996 automobile accident. It is a shade garden that includes hostas, azaleas, dogwoods and other plants to be interspersed with annual flowers for color. Five solid-teak benches line the brick walkways, which were constructed with 10,000 bricks.
The garden is located adjacent to the college's Sculpture Green at the Centenary Boulevard entrance to the campus. It also houses a sundial and one of Mr. Curtis's handmade bird houses.
Centenary President Dr. Kenneth L. Schwab and Dr. Joseph F. Carlisle, a Curtis family friend, will speak at the dedication ceremony. A reception and tour of the garden will follow.
The Wayne Curtis Memorial Garden was made possible by memorial contributions made through the Shreveport Green organization. Friends and family of Mr. Curtis have also created the Wayne Curtis Memorial Scholarship, which will benefit a Centenary student beginning next fall.
At Centenary, Mr. Curtis was a varsity basketball and tennis player and a member of Kappa Sigma fraternity. After his graduation in 1969, he was associated with State Farm Insurance, where he achieved Legion of Honor status for 15 years. Mr. Curtis was active with the State Farm Civic Involvement Committee. In his memory, the State Farm Community Service Award for this region was named the "Wayne Curtis Community Service Award, Mid-South Region."
Active in Shreveport civic affairs, Mr. Curtis was founder and president of the Multiple Sclerosis Society of North Louisiana and president of the South Shreveport Kiwanis Club. He was chairman of the Mayor's Commission on Crime and served on the boards of the Strand Theatre, the Red River Revel Governing Board and the Louisiana Judicial Council. He was also a well-known tennis player and was ranked No. 2 in the South on the seniors circuit.
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